In one month we generated 664,332 searches via ROM’s website. More than 600 national and international online posts with tens of thousands of comments contributed positive content on Romanians and on the campaign, increasing tenfold the number of search results in Google (from 200,000 to about 3,000,000).

With a total media investment under €10,000, ROM’s campaign earned €577,000 worth of offline media and €487,320 of online media, touching 2,500,000 people. This brought ROM a 20% boost in sales, an 8% rise in market share vs 2010.

In the end we managed to change Romanians’ image on the Internet, proving the power of Google as viral medium.

We started with the online seeding of the insulting screenshots. Overnight, traditional media outlets exploded, turning this into the hot topic of the day. Three days later we came with the solution: we redirected ROM’s webpage to a landing page, www.romaniansaresmart.com, where people could generate positive searches in Google pages around the world.

With a fraction of a traditional media campaign's budget, we decided to put all our money in Google Adwords and Search Engine Optimization. RomaniansAreSmart.com managed to grow organically raising in just 3 days to no1 result in searches for “Romanians are”.

From now on, our strategy was to push the campaign on the offline media agenda using online influencers and rallying top personalities for our campaign. We partnered with the top 10 Romanian bloggers, and launched online a series of testimonials featuring key opinion leaders.The campaign peaked when Romanian CNN, Realitatea TV, joined the campaign in a one-day live broadcast TV marathon, for the National Day, where public figures and regular folk offered support.

Since its 1964 launch, ROM chocolate has been a symbol of Romanian pride. With the 2010 American Rom campaign, the brand strengthened this position. However, after one year off air, ROM’s market share and brand indicators were going down. The brand needed a turnaround, all within a very small budget.The brief was to create a campaign to rekindle people’s national pride for December 1st -Romania’s National Day - a date that meant little but another day off to our 25-35 year-old core target, that however held ROM chocolate dear.Our solution was rooted in a stunning discovery... if one Googled: "Romanians are" in various languages the suggested search predictions were all derogatory. In addition French and Italian media had just launched backlash campaigns against Romanian immigrants.Changing Romanians’ image on Google was the perfect means for ROM to reach its communication objectives and re-awaken national pride.